<p>Chill.</p>
<p>Honestly, calm down and enjoy life.</p>
<p>I didn't let college overtake my life, and everything turned out perfectly well:</p>
<p>I'm a senior at a small, very competitive high school. Therefore, college admission is a fairly ubiquitous presence on campus. However, even in this environment, I managed to not notice it. Part of it was denial - college? Good grief that's YEARS away. I shoved it to a corner of my mind and concentrated on my studies, found activities I enjoyed, and hung out with my friends. I spent summers at the beach, on family vacations, pursuing some activities that I could continue into the summer, finding some work, etc. I did what I wanted to (money, time, and conditions permitting).</p>
<p>When it came time to register for classes, I took the classes that seemed the most interesting to me. I qualified for the top classes in every subject (at my school, entrance is only granted upon recommendation), but I didn't go for them. I hated math, and knew that if I took AP Calculus, my life would be miserable. I chose AP Statistics instead and, thinking that I would have more time, signed up for an elective that sounded interesting. AP English Language sounded dreadfully dull, so I replaced it with two regular English classes that turned out to be my favorite classes ever. And so on. It is to be noted, though, that when I opted out of the most difficult class, I made sure that I made up for it with something else that I actually would enjoy, perhaps picking up an extra language or giving up my free period to take an extra course. Looking back, my transcript does not contain every single top class my school offers, but it does seem to contain a LOT of classes that I picked because I liked the subjects.</p>
<p>Junior year, I met with my college counselor for the first time. I could name maybe 20 schools in the country. I was advised to pick up a Fiske guide, and later she pulled together for me a list of possible schools. I still put it off.</p>
<p>I took the SAT I for the first time in the spring of my junior year. I had, of course, taken the PSATs as a routine part of our high school schedule. I did well, and found some SAT IIs that seemed likely. I took those in June. I decided over the summer to try the SAT I again, and took it in the fall. I was very pleased with my results. The big thing is, I didn't stress. I did absolutely no SAT prep, and looking back, I would not have wanted to waste my time preparing for a 4 hour standardized test.</p>
<p>I drifted through my junior summer doing this-and-that, visiting X campus and Y campus, but still not really committing to the application process. Finally, the fall of my senior year, I realized that I would have to choose a list of colleges so that I could do my applications. I spent a few weeks thinking very hard, visiting a campus if it was within reasonable distance, reading up on the school summaries, etc. I came up with a list of eight schools (3 safeties, 3 matches, 2 reaches) and applied.</p>
<p>The application process itself was easy. Sure, there was some annoying stuff that I had to repeatedly ask for and repeatedly report, but it was mostly busywork. The essays were no biggie. I sat down at the computer and let my thoughts take form. I realized that if I found that I could not stop writing, and if I grossly exceeded the word count, then I was on the right track and could make adjustments later. But I just let everything out. I didn't think about what the admissions officers might want to read, I didn't worry about the level of vocabulary I used... I just wanted to express myself. The only stress I got was because I put them off for way too long.</p>
<p>Teacher recommendations? I chose my teachers from my favorite classes and didn't worry about it.</p>
<p>The extracurriculars, the awards, etc. all filled themselves out. I had just done what I had liked, and consequently provided myself with ample stuff to relay in my application. Ironically, the first time it really occurred to me that I had obtained "leadership positions" was when I had to put it on my application. Who knew? I just enjoyed the club and felt honored to have been chosen to lead it. Community service? I had started volunteering for this program because my friend enjoyed it and encouraged me to try, and everything took off from there. I was quite frankly surprised when I saw the final not-so-small number of service hours.</p>
<p>In truth, I really only started to stress about applications until after they were all in. Everything turned out wonderfully - I got into several top schools and won a scholarship. Now I am dealing with the - in my opinion - vastly more difficult task of deciding where to go.</p>
<p>I am not a top student. I am not even in the top 10% of my small class. My SAT scores are very good but not exceptional. I didn't do anything incredible over the summer - when people hear what I did, their reactions are more along the lines of "Oh really? That sounds really cool, tell me more about it" than "WOW!!! You must be an absolute GENIUS!!!" Statistically, I doubt that I would have gotten in on GPA and SATs alonge. I was very surprised to have gotten into a Top 10 University and almost every other top 35 school I applied to, because the numbers were iffy and I had no real "hook."</p>
<p>But my application was unique, and represented ME - my passions, my beliefs, my accomplishments. Call it spoiled, but I really did choose to do what I wanted (if it was possible), and that fleshed itself out in my applications. I did not, over the years, look for things that I thought might benefit me later in the application process. I looked for things that would help me develop as a person.</p>
<p>Do I have some regreats? Yes, of course. Would this work for everyone? I'd like to think so, but then again I could have been lucky. Do I advise putting off the college process until the last moment? No - obviously, I did, and it might have caused me some unneccesary procrastination-related stress. Do I recommend not thinking about your future at all? Absolutely not. But I do recommend taking the time to enjoy life right now, and work on finding yourself - who you are, what you are interested in, what you will want to do later in life. If colleges don't like this person, then are they really worthy of you as a person? Alternatively, if you shape yourself to achieve admission to a top school, then have you perhaps sacrificed something that makes you unique?</p>
<p>I am not saying to pass up opportunity. Quite the opposite. Be the best that you can, but do so because you want to explore your full potential as a human being. That sounds cheesy (oh and believe me, I am one of the most sarcastic people you might ever come across), but I firmly believe that in doing so, the rest - college, for example - will fall into place as it should.</p>